A winner of a World Series of Poker gold bracelet, Florida's Jon Heneghan, was arrested and charged on Wednesday with being part of the mob of pro-Donald Trump insurgents that forcibly invaded the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C., on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop the Congressional certification of President Joe Biden's electoral victory.
Heneghan, 57, of Dunedin, Florida, and his girlfriend, TV chef Carol Kicinski, who was also arrested, each face four charges in connection with being part of the illegal mass invasion of the Capitol property. Heneghan and Kicinski, who were arrested by federal marshals, each face charges of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
The two Floridians join nearly 800 other people arrested for, at the minimum, being part of the forceful invasion of the Capitol. Neither Heneghan nor Kicinski were charged in connection with some of the most violent Jan. 6 incidents, which resulted in numerous injuries and five deaths in addition to significant destruction of federal property.
Heneghan should not be confused with famed poker pro John "Johnny World" Hennigan, a member of the Poker Hall of Fame and a six-time WSOP bracelet winner.
Heneghan and Kicinski identified through phone tracing
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia issued several documents related to Heneghan's and Kicinski's arrests. In the year since the January 6 riots, investigators have sifted through massive amounts of video and electronic evidence to identify participants.
According to an affidavit excerpted into the case's Statement of Facts, Heneghan's and Kicinski's arrests began with the continued sifting of cel-phone location tracking records. That has led to a tracking strategy: all phones possessed by authorized people who were at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 have long since been added to an exclusion list, leaving other phones and smart devices that were pinged as being on the Capitol grounds that day to be tracked back to their owners.
Combinations of cel-phone and driver-registration records led to Heneghan and Kicinski, who were discovered to have been inside the Capitol building for roughly 20 minutes that day. Heneghan and Kicinski were further identified in surveillance images taken by Capitol security cameras, and Heneghan was later positively identified by his ex-wife, who now lives in Germany.
The statement of facts released by the District of Columbia USAO includes imagery of Heneghan taken from his poker career; several pictures were used by authorities to help identify him. The statement also includes multiple shots from the Capitol's cameras showing Heneghan and Kicinski inside the Capitol, such as the following:
Heneghan lodged big poker score with 2005 bracelet win
Heneghan has listed himself as a "professional poker player" in documents obtained by the D.C. USAO, though if so, he's become primarily a cash-game player. His sole big score in tournament poker was his 2005 triumph in a $1,000 no-limit hold'em event at the World Series of Poker, where he topped an 894-player field to win $611,015 and a gold bracelet.
Though Heneghan's profiles on tournament databases show him with another 25 to 30 cashes, that 2005 result remains the only time Heneghan has cashed for at least $10,000 in a recorded tournament. In recent years, Heneghan's scattered cashes have occurred in tourneys held at central Florida casinos and card rooms, mixed in with a few small results from occasional summer trips to Las Vegas.
Heneghan has only one other WSOP cash to his name besides his bracelet win. That came in 2008, when he finished 75th in another big-field NLHE event, cashing for a little over $8,000.
Featured image source: USAO, District of Columbia
